Château DIY in Bordeaux: The Vineyard Farmhouse We Restored on Camera

Château Méaume is the Bordeaux vineyard featured on Channel 4's Château DIY, in the episode first shown on Friday 17 April 2026. The cameras followed the two of us, Mark and Sandra, as we restored the 18th century stone farmhouse on our Right Bank estate, 15 minutes from Pomerol and 25 from Saint-Émilion. The renovation is finished, and the farmhouse you watched us work on is now where our guests stay, with room for up to ten people and a tasting in our cellar included.

Who are the Château DIY couple in Bordeaux?

We are Mark and Sandra Johnson-Hill. Mark's family has been at Château Méaume since 1978, when Alan and Sue Johnson-Hill took on the estate, and Mark first came here as a boy on a family holiday in 1982. His family stayed in the farmhouse, which was very rustic then, with a single bathroom, and Mark's bed stood where the main entrance is now. He had no idea he would one day be renovating it.

We took over the estate from Mark's uncle in 2019, after twenty years living and working across Asia, Switzerland and New York. Before we committed, we spent time working on a vineyard in Tuscany to see whether the life really suited us. Wine has been made here since 1795, and Bruno, our winemaker, has been with the estate since 2010, so we arrived to a place with a long history and a cellar in very good hands. There is more about the family on our about page.

What did Château DIY film at Château Méaume?

The episode follows the renovation of the farmhouse at the edge of the estate, which had stood empty for years. It needed almost everything: a new roof, new plumbing, new wiring, new floors and a new kitchen. We took a simple top-down approach. The ceilings came first, with every timber painted, stained or preserved to bring it back to how it should look. Then the stone walls, which had to be treated carefully to avoid damage, and finally the floors, which caused the most debate, worry and sweat of the whole project, because they had to be reworked and levelled before the period tiles could go down.

Once the bones of the house were sound, Sandra could turn to the kitchen and the look and feel of the rooms. We had a lot of fun searching local brocantes for antiques that suited the house, and haggled for most of them. All told, the renovation took around two years.

How did we end up on the show?

We had watched Château DIY for years, and when the programme posted on Instagram that it was looking for new château owners, we applied. We were genuinely surprised to be invited for an interview, and even more surprised when they asked us to take part. There was a brief moment of hesitation, mostly because we had never expected to get that far, and then we said yes. You can see the programme's own page about us on the Château DIY website.

Having a film crew on a working vineyard sounded like a recipe for chaos, with cattle in the fields and Bruno trying to get on with the winemaking. In practice the crew were professional and kind, they explained how they would film each stage, and after a nervous start it quickly felt normal.

What didn't make the final cut?

Plenty, as with any renovation. The thing Mark is most pleased to report is that, despite a poor start, he did complete his tractor training, with no further mishaps beyond one cut wire, which Sandra only found out about when she watched the episode. We have answered the other questions viewers keep asking in what Château DIY didn't show you and in our story from the UK to a Bordeaux vineyard.

Where are Mark and Sandra now?

Still here, running the estate. The farmhouse opened to guests in 2025, and the single bathroom Mark remembers from 1982 is now three. When it was finally finished it felt a little surreal. We had talked about renovating it for so long that the moment it was done, the problems and the doubtful decisions about floors and bathrooms were forgotten, and every choice suddenly looked obvious.

Life on the estate follows the vineyard. Bruno and Mark are in the cellar from first light at harvest each September, and in August 2026 we opened 60 consecutive vintages of our wine, from 1966 to 2025, side by side. Our wine is a Merlot-led Bordeaux Supérieur, and you can see the current vintages on our Right Bank Bordeaux wines page.

Can you stay in the Château DIY farmhouse?

Yes. The farmhouse is let as a whole, so you have it to yourselves: four double bedrooms, three bathrooms, the kitchen Sandra designed and a long table for dinner, sleeping up to ten adults. The minimum stay is three nights for most of the year and five nights in July, August and harvest. Guests can use the swimming pool, tennis court and the small lake, and every stay includes a tasting in the cellar with the two of us.

It suits groups of friends and families of adults who want a real working vineyard rather than a hotel. The farmhouse is rural, so you will need a car, and because this is a working estate with heavy machinery and cattle, we can't accept guests under 17. The details and dates are on the page for our farmhouse on the vineyard.

Quick answers

Where is the Château DIY vineyard in Bordeaux? Château Méaume is in Maransin on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, 15 minutes from Pomerol and 25 minutes from Saint-Émilion.

Who owns Château Méaume? Mark and Sandra Johnson-Hill, who took over in 2019. Mark's family has been at the estate since 1978.

When was Château Méaume on Château DIY? The episode was first shown on Channel 4 on Friday 17 April 2026.

Can you stay at the Château DIY farmhouse? Yes. The restored farmhouse sleeps up to ten adults and every stay includes a cellar tasting.

What is the Château DIY farmhouse like now?

The episode shows the hard part of the story: two years of ceilings, stone walls and floors. What came afterwards is the reason we did it, a farmhouse that was empty for years and now has guests around its long table again, drinking wine from the vines outside the window.

If you watched the episode and would like to see the farmhouse in person, it sits among our vines, and every stay includes a tasting in the cellar with us. See the farmhouse and check dates.